Reference: Covetousness
Easton
a strong desire after the possession of worldly things (Col 3:5; Eph 5:5; Heb 13:5; 1Ti 6:9-10; Mt 6:20). It assumes sometimes the more aggravated form of avarice, which is the mark of cold-hearted worldliness.
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but lay up for your selves treasures in heaven, where there is neither moth, nor rust, nor corruption, nor thieves, nor violence to molest you.
for this you know, that no licentious or dissolute person, no lewd libertine, that is, an idolater, hath any part in the kingdom of Christ, and of God.
Mortify therefore your sensual appetites, fornication, impurity, irregular passions, wicked desires, and that licentiousness practised by idolaters.
let your morals be free from avarice, being contented with what you have: for he hath said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."
Hastings
In the Bible, covetousness is a crime. In the Ten Commandments it is put under the ban along with murder, adultery, theft, and slander (Ex 20:17; De 5:21). Achan was guilty of this crime, and was stoned to death (Jos 7:16-26). Every occurrence of the word or the thing in the OT is connected with a prohibition or a curse (Ps 10:3; 119:36; Pr 21:26; 28:16; Isa 57:17; Hab 2:9). In the NT adultery and covetousness are usually classed together (1Co 5:11; 6:9-10; Col 3:5; 2Pe 2:14). This conjunction of sensual sin and love of money probably rests upon the authority of Jesus (Mr 7:21-22). Jesus and the Apostles declared that the worshipper of Bacchus and the worshipper of Venus and the worshipper of Mammon belong to one and the same class. Grasping avarice is as incompatible with the spirit of self-sacrifice taught in the NT as is the selfish indulgence in drink or the grosser indulgence in vice. The Bible puts the covetous man in the same category with the murderer and the thief. The Christian Church needs to study anew the Bible teaching concerning covetousness, as found in Jer 22:17; Mic 2:2; Lu 12:15; Ro 7:7; Eph 5:3,6; 1Ti 6:10; Heb 13:5, and other passages. No covetous man has any inheritance in the Kingdom of God.
D. A. Hayes.
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for from within, from the heart of man proceed wicked designs, adulteries, fornications, murders; thefts, avarice, malice, fraud, impudence, envy, scandal, pride, vanity.
then he said to them, take care to be clear of all avarice: for the enjoyment of life does not depend upon the having large possessions.
Do we then conclude, that the law is the cause of sin? by no means; but I should not have had such a notion of sin, had it not been for the law: for I should not have known concupiscence was a sin, unless the law had said, "thou shalt not covet."
but my meaning was, not to keep company with any christian known to be vicious, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or rapacious, no not even to eat with such a one.
Know you not that the unjust shall not inherit the kingdom of God? be not deceived: neither the licentious, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor the brutal, nor thieves, nor misers, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor raparees, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
But fornication, and all impurity, or inordinate desire, let it not be approved by you, as being unworthy of christians: neither ribaldry,
let no man mislead you by vain reasonings: for it is for these vices, that the wrath of God lights upon the incredulous.
Mortify therefore your sensual appetites, fornication, impurity, irregular passions, wicked desires, and that licentiousness practised by idolaters.
let your morals be free from avarice, being contented with what you have: for he hath said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."